The Energy Alternatives Division of Cupertino Electric, Inc. recently announced the completion of a 20MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Huron, Calif., engineered and constructed for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The 20MW project was built in eight months and is the third project that Cupertino Electric has built for PG&E under the utility’s five-year clean energy initiative. The commercial operation date of the 20MW project is scheduled for June 29.

"PG&E and our partners today celebrate another milestone in our solar PV program,” said John Conway, senior VP of energy supply for PG&E. “These new solar facilities demonstrate our ongoing commitment to providing our customers with some of the cleanest energy in the nation. We’re proud that more than half of our electricity comes from sources that are renewable or emit no greenhouse gases. We applaud the dedicated workers from Cupertino Electric who are helping us harness even more clean energy from the sun.”

The 20MW Huron project was engineered and constructed by Cupertino Electric under PG&E’s 500MW Solar PV Program which includes up to 250MW of utility-owned solar generation. The Huron site is one of three projects which comprise the second year of the utility-owned generation program. Construction of the project spanned eight months starting in October 2011 and ending in June 2012.

“This third successful PG&E project leveraged the knowledge Cupertino Electric gained on past utility-scale projects for PG&E and the skills of our outstanding in-house engineering and construction teams,” said Paul Aggarwal, VP of operations for Cupertino Electric’s Energy Alternatives Division. “We are fortunate to work with some of the best people in the industry at PG&E. Through this multi-year experience, we have developed methods that enable us to deliver projects faster, safer and more efficiently each time we step onto a solar jobsite.”